Pumpkins and Painting
I woke up this morning at 3:50, thanks to my phone buzzing like crazy because 9 delayed text messages all decided to make an early morning entrance. I was really confused at first because I had set my phone alarm for 4:55 so I could do the early CG workout. So I sat and stared at it for a while trying to figure out if it was time to wake up, and then I think something about anticipating needing to wake up again in an hour made me restless enough that I couldn't go back to sleep. That combined with feeling the worse I've felt yet out of six or seven days of a brewing cold made me strongly tempted to turn off that 4:55 alarm and save Camp Gladiator for another day, but behold the powers of a free tshirt! Sleep deprivation and illness aside, I got myself to that workout (the health "benefits" are questionable, as I'm sure I would have done my body a greater favor by resting). It really wasn't too bad--turns out Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays (two of those were the only days I made it to last week) are the hard weight-intensive days, so this seemed low key by comparison. I also liked being outside in the cool air as the sky gradually turned lighter--there is something I really love about being outdoors in the early mornings, even if it was in a pack of sweaty people in a parking lot in the middle of a city.
This morning as soon as Will woke up he went straight to the fridge to get his morning yogurt. He stood there staring for a while before exclaiming in a tone of excitement and puzzlement, "pumpkin!"
Hi there!
Last night my students were doing usability testing on their sets of instructions, and one of them did pumpkin carving. They gave me their pumpkin when they were done. I considered putting it out on the back porch for our sole fall decoration, but had no idea how soon it would rot in the Southern heat. So we got some glamour shots with our pumpkin, which WIll named, by the way, "Pumpkin Pie" (foreshadowing much?).
Pumpkin Pie is greeted with love and suspicion.
We enjoyed 5 minutes with our Halloween decoration, feeling festive. Then moved on.
Pumpkin Pie yielded 8 cups of puree and fulfilled his destiny:
Despite Will's earlier love and enthusiasm for him, he showed no remorse as we hacked up Pumpkin Pie, and is pretty excited about PP's afterlife form. We shall taste it tomorrow! Not bad all in a day when 24 hours earlier I had absolutely no plans for processing pumpkin or making pies. Most of the time I don't get around to cooking what I've had on my list for weeks. Hopefully it turned out; I've never actually made my own pumpkin puree or pie from fresh pumpkin before.
We also went to the Norton art gallery's kid activity which I guess they do once a month. This one involved a walk/tour through the gardens and a painting activity, where the kids were given real canvases (I kind of wanted to steal it from him and give him some scrap paper).
Will's masterpiece:
I call it "Coyote vs. Semi Truck." Jeremy was more impressed and wants to hang it up in his office, so he wins the supportive parent award this time.
Will must have had a good day, because he actually napped! Which was good, cause I really needed a nap. His naps are down to about once every two weeks (sob). It was fun to see him get so excited about so many little things today, and we didn't have quite as many frustrations as is typical (he's been into contrariness and doing/saying the opposite of what you tell him to lately, and it takes SO LONG to get him to use the bathroom before we go anywhere).
Oh, and back to pumpkin stuff: I'm actually not a huge pumpkin fan--in fact, I don't think I made a single pumpkin food item last fall (I know, I know, I'm the downer fall hater). But those pumpkin pancakes I made the other day are seriously sooooo good--I had them as leftovers twice and was surprised each time that it tasted even better than I remembered. So, here's the recipe:
http://www.tastingtable.com/entry_detail/chefs_recipes/18135/How_to_Make_Pumpkin_and_Pecan_Pancakes.htm?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=bonappetit_2015&mbid=social_facebook
Instead of the cream I used slightly sour milk that we were just going to dump anyway, because I've read that sour milk is great to use for things like pancakes. I didn't add pecans only because I didn't have them, but I bet it would be delicious. And I didn't read the directions carefully and dumped the 4 Tbsp oil in with the batter instead of just using it to coat the pan, so don't know how much it would differ to make them the right way. But still! So good! I was wary about the amount of spices because I'm not someone that likes that kind of spice overdone, but they were really good and didn't feel excessive at all, so I wouldn't change that.
This morning as soon as Will woke up he went straight to the fridge to get his morning yogurt. He stood there staring for a while before exclaiming in a tone of excitement and puzzlement, "pumpkin!"
Hi there!
Last night my students were doing usability testing on their sets of instructions, and one of them did pumpkin carving. They gave me their pumpkin when they were done. I considered putting it out on the back porch for our sole fall decoration, but had no idea how soon it would rot in the Southern heat. So we got some glamour shots with our pumpkin, which WIll named, by the way, "Pumpkin Pie" (foreshadowing much?).
Pumpkin Pie is greeted with love and suspicion.
We enjoyed 5 minutes with our Halloween decoration, feeling festive. Then moved on.
Pumpkin Pie yielded 8 cups of puree and fulfilled his destiny:
Despite Will's earlier love and enthusiasm for him, he showed no remorse as we hacked up Pumpkin Pie, and is pretty excited about PP's afterlife form. We shall taste it tomorrow! Not bad all in a day when 24 hours earlier I had absolutely no plans for processing pumpkin or making pies. Most of the time I don't get around to cooking what I've had on my list for weeks. Hopefully it turned out; I've never actually made my own pumpkin puree or pie from fresh pumpkin before.
We also went to the Norton art gallery's kid activity which I guess they do once a month. This one involved a walk/tour through the gardens and a painting activity, where the kids were given real canvases (I kind of wanted to steal it from him and give him some scrap paper).
Will's masterpiece:
I call it "Coyote vs. Semi Truck." Jeremy was more impressed and wants to hang it up in his office, so he wins the supportive parent award this time.
Will must have had a good day, because he actually napped! Which was good, cause I really needed a nap. His naps are down to about once every two weeks (sob). It was fun to see him get so excited about so many little things today, and we didn't have quite as many frustrations as is typical (he's been into contrariness and doing/saying the opposite of what you tell him to lately, and it takes SO LONG to get him to use the bathroom before we go anywhere).
Oh, and back to pumpkin stuff: I'm actually not a huge pumpkin fan--in fact, I don't think I made a single pumpkin food item last fall (I know, I know, I'm the downer fall hater). But those pumpkin pancakes I made the other day are seriously sooooo good--I had them as leftovers twice and was surprised each time that it tasted even better than I remembered. So, here's the recipe:
http://www.tastingtable.com/entry_detail/chefs_recipes/18135/How_to_Make_Pumpkin_and_Pecan_Pancakes.htm?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=bonappetit_2015&mbid=social_facebook
Instead of the cream I used slightly sour milk that we were just going to dump anyway, because I've read that sour milk is great to use for things like pancakes. I didn't add pecans only because I didn't have them, but I bet it would be delicious. And I didn't read the directions carefully and dumped the 4 Tbsp oil in with the batter instead of just using it to coat the pan, so don't know how much it would differ to make them the right way. But still! So good! I was wary about the amount of spices because I'm not someone that likes that kind of spice overdone, but they were really good and didn't feel excessive at all, so I wouldn't change that.